


Underneath the Covers (Lies! Lies!)

by fearandlothering



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-28 02:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fearandlothering/pseuds/fearandlothering
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Albus discovers the scars Durmstrang left on Gellert. And asks about them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underneath the Covers (Lies! Lies!)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the quote prompt: "Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal." - Leonard Cohen
> 
> (There's no explicit sex, but there's some pretty heavy petting, and sex is most definitely implied. Thus, the no NC-17 on this. I'm still not quite sure it's safe for work though. Caution's the better point of valour, etc.?)

"Where did these come from?" The seemingly innocuous question, posed in a hushed tone as slender fingers ghosted over a faint line of raised tissue, stood in the silent, charged air between them as if the boy's hands had been all fire and sparks of lightning. The body below him bristled, the fine hairs on his arms shooting straight into the air, but didn't struggle out of the contact. Even so, Albus immediately regretted asking. It sounded so perverse when he got no answer right away. Gellert's stunned silence was answer enough.

Albus stammered out an immediate apology, and recoiled like electricity meeting a positive charge, only to be pulled back by a firm hand around his wrist.

"What are you sorry for, Albus?" the other asked, staring up at him from beneath the same heavy lashes Albus had caught himself staring at across the spine of a book so often that he'd lost count, or even awareness of the fact that he'd been doing it at all. Gellert's lips pulled at a smile, halfheartedly. 

Clearly, the subject chafed. "I shouldn't have brought this up."

Still, he couldn't discourage the interest. Most evenings disallowed for such physical contemplation; Albus' siblings had a nasty habit of disrupting at all the wrong moments: if it wasn't Ariana's explosive stress that left both her and the small house shaking, it was Aberforth's almost too-keen perception when it came to the timing of his interruptions. Such was the furious and desperate life of stolen passion and shuddering, choked climaxes.

It would figure that the first moment they get that wasn't forced, he'd ruined it by prying. To Albus' surprise, however, Gellert let out a clipped laugh. "I can't hide them forever. Especially not from you. I fear you've exposed me, my friend. My secret is now yours."

He moved in closer, dipping to mouth at the other boy's collarbone. "And what secret is that?" he asked in-between the soft presses of his lips.

The ministrations earned him a breathy, gasping moan. "Pirates, off the coast of Denmark."

_Something is rotten in the state of Denmark._ Albus scoffed and pulled away, glancing at the boy beneath him skeptically. " _Pirates_? Come off it, Gellert, that's ridiculous."

The boy only smiled wider, as he leaned up into his friend's ear while casually looping a leg around Albus'. "A very specific sort of pirate," he continued, his voice nothing more than a whisper.

_Oh._ Albus stared at him, wide-eyed. If anything was to be ascertained from Gellert's tone, it must have meant...it meant another lover, didn't it? A specific sort. But what? Gellert never delved into his life before the Hollow any more than necessary. Why hadn't it ever occurred to him that his friend could have had a laundry list of former flings? He certainly exuded enough charismatic energy. Why was he so surprised?

And what did specific mean? The sort of "pirate" that could recite Oscar Wilde to him by heart in the middle of--

Gellert must have inferred the doubt through Albus' expression, as he carefully carded a hand through the boy's long, auburn hair. "Some things I reserve only for you, mein schatz," he said, punctuating his words with his free hand slipping down the front of Albus' trousers. "Though you did ask."

The words stopped short in Albus' throat, coming out only in a heady moan as he buried his flushed face into the warmth of his companion's collarbone. Albus lost track of how long they remained like this, all hands brushing and groping among quiet, desperate insistence that the other never stop. He lay entangled in a mass of limbs, with his glasses hung crooked, his hair tangled in a disheveled mess around his face, and his clothing long gone, before he mentioned it again. "What happened to him?"

Gellert gaped at him, breathless. "Who?"

"You know who. The 'pirate'?"

Albus' clarification was met with a quiet "Ah," and it took another long moment before Gellert pulled himself into a position where he could look his friend straight on. He took another to remove the crooked glasses with smirk, before settling back with a look of deep concentration. "What happened, Albus, is much like this," he said, taking hold of his hand and running it lightly back over the scarring in question. "Or what happened to your dear sister."

The statement was cause for alarm. When had this shot straight past the point of lovers and into that? "Gellert..."

Gellert shook his head, interrupting him. "What I mean to say, is that it has already happened. I can't go back and stop any of it. The past, unfortunately, is the only thing that ever just is. But what we can do, Albus--mein freund--we can change what lies ahead."

"And the pirate?"

Gellert laughed. "Unfortunately, my friend, we're a century too late for honest piracy."

"You could have said you didn't want to talk about it," he answered softly, trying to avert his gaze. Wouldn't that have been easier than lying, however romantic it may have sounded?

"Nein." Gellert would have none of it. A hand reached out and caressed Albus' cheek, pulling the twinkling gaze back to meet his own. "And watch you sulk? I think not. Besides, I think you did better in lieu of the competition. Should it be vagrant tramps next week? I may know a few..."

" _Gellert._ "

The boy shushed him with a light kiss. "I'll tell you when it's necessary, Albus. Your fantasies are quite enough to live up to as it is."


End file.
